Today on Oldest Olympians, we have two updates to Olympic centenarians. First, we were hoping to wish Günther Haase a happy 101st birthday as the oldest living German Olympian. Haase represented his country at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, where he won a bronze medal in platform diving. Two years earlier, he had won that event at the 1950 European Championships, and in total he collected eight national titles between 1943 and 1956. He later moved to the United States with his wife, also a German national champion in diving.
(Walter Konrad)
Unfortunately, we were unable to locate confirmation of his 100th birthday over the past year, and thus we have had to remove him from our tables. This leaves Walter Konrad, born July 4, 1928, as the oldest living German Olympian. Konrad represented his country in the 10,000 metres track event at the 1956 Melbourne Games, where he placed 13th. The oldest living German Olympic medalist, meanwhile, is Fritz Nachmann, born August 16, 1929. Nachmann represented (West) Germany in three luging events across two editions of the Games, 1964 and 1968, winning bronze in the doubles in 1968.
Then, Oldest Olympians was saddened to learn that Yulen Uralov, born November 23, 1924, died earlier this month at the age of 101. Uralov represented the Soviet Union in individual and team foil at the 1952 Helsinki Games, where he was eliminated in the quarter-finals and round one respectively. He was the Soviet foil champion in 1952 and 1953, and later turned to coaching.
(Ninel Krutova)
At the time of his death, Uralov was the oldest living Soviet Olympian, oldest living Olympic fencer, and oldest survivor of the 1952 Helsinki Games. The first distinction now goes to Ninel Krutova, born January 3, 1926, who represented the Soviet Union in five diving events across three editions of the Games, 1952-1960, and won bronze on the platform in 1960. The oldest living Olympic fencer is now Carmen Vall, born June 17, 1926, who was eliminated in the first round of the individual foil in 1960. Finally, the oldest survivor of the 1952 Helsinki Olympics is now Colette Fanara, born February 15, 1925, who competed in the gymnastics tournament with a best individual finish of 85th in the uneven bars.
One name that was no longer in contention for being the oldest survivor of the Helsinki Games is Korean equestrian Min Byeong-Seon, born in 1919. We had Min listed previously as possibly living, as we did not have a date of death, but thanks to Connor Mah we now know that he died December 14, 1970. In the realm of fencing, we were also able to confirm that Jacques Ben Gualid, born May 3, 1918, who represented Morocco in three events at the 1960 Rome Games, did die on May 3, 1976 in Toronto.